No devils in these pitches

I mostly agree with what Daryl Cullinan has siad in this report, South Africa are heavily dependant on runs from Jacques Kallis. Hashim Amla is not test class, scoring runs against a 3rd string New Zealand bowling attack have for some reason lifted his status. Graeme Smith is being found out at last for having an appaling technique and Herschelle Gibbs is struggling for consistency. South Africa should be doing all they can to for AB De Villiers as he is going to be the mainstay of their batting line up for the next decade, continually shifting him up and down the order is not helping him. I do find it slightly unfair to say Andrew Puttick is found wanting in the international arena, he has played one game! My South African team would be: Smith, Gibbs, Kallis, De Villiers, McKenzie, Prince, Boucher, Harris, Nel, Morkel and Steyn.

Quiet honestly I sometimes wonder how come other players get dropped immediately they under-perform. Biff on the other hand has been under perfoming for almost 2 yrs now. Gibbs has his on and off, can never actually tell how he'll perform. then you got AB who I honestly feel could've made way for Neil McKenzie in the test arena. He is gradually however maturing with each game. I still wish for a scorecard whereby our top order made solid starts. a hundred from one of the openers then followed by a double hundred from Jakes and Hashim. 678/5. Gibbs 55, Smith 121, Hashim 127, Jakes 278*,Prince 54 and AB 32 off 23 balls. a 5-ver for Steyn, 3 from Harris, 1 Ntini, 1 Nel. I am allowed to dream can't I?

If i can add a further comment on this section (the reason why i started my last reply): "Deluding themselves about the quality of pitches in the country might serve a short-term purpose for the country's coaches and their batsmen, but the truth may be exposed in the most dramatic and painful fashion if the established South Africa top-order players lose form or fitness." I don't think there is a huge difference in quality (Kallis aside) between the top 15 players. I think they're all between 30-40 international ave material. I don't think loss of form or fitness would be painful or dramatic - rather, i think, it would simply show that although there is some depth - it is not particularly high quality depth. I'm afraid that is how i see the current line-up anyway. Smith is as much miss as hit, as is De Villiers. Amla had a good series vs. NZ but was a case for dropping just prior. Gibbs is Gibbs. The only positive before NZ was Prince, who always represeted resistence.

i agree that there are issues with the batting but there are issues too with this article. Puttick has played 1 ODI while Ontong has had 12 ODI innings (in 6 different positions ranging from 3 to 9) - 4 innings he came in at 7 or later (the time when wickets usually are tumbling. He has played only two tests - one in OZ, in very trying circumstances: the other against India, at #7 he outscored dipenaar and Rudolph didn't do that much better (well, he scored high in the first innings while ontong ran out of partners). Tried and tested??? On the other hand. Rudolph, McKenzie, Van Jaarsveld and Dipenaar have truly been tried and found wanting. For each, there is a case for sympathy but Rudolph's performances deteriorated a LOT, Dipennar never really got going and van jaarsveld never faced a decent attack (SL probably being the best - and he only went above 50 with murali out). While Smith and de villiers should be continually fighting for their spots - Prince is solid.

I don't think the issue is with the lack of depth in batting in the domestic circuit. If you look at the South African batting line-up I think almost all except Kallis, Gibbs and maybe Prince are under-30 which means they have a good future ahead of them. And its not as if every country has a Kallis calibre batsman waiting in the wings. Some of them will take time to mature and get better. However, scoring runs on flat tracks and then blaming the pitches when the going gets tough is hypocrisy. In fact countries all over the cricketing world should be encouraged to produce difficult wickets either square-turners or garden-like green tops. That would be a real test far from the plonk-the-foot-down-and-hit surfaces. Batsmen are having it too easy on lifeless tracks.

The Proteas when on song with the openers blazing can be an extremely strong force to reckon with. But their middle order and tail is weak. Boasting of all rounders the line up is frail and performs only when the top order provides a blazing start. They certainly lack batting depth as was evident in the T20 when they were a bundle of nerves after losing the first 3 wkts. 2 run outs and poor shot selection under pressure, they surely lack depth.